Place · Salentine fief · House of Gallone
Caprarica del Capo.
The casale of the Princes of Tricase, documented by the 1753 act.
A casale of the Lower Salento, in the Terra d'Otranto, Caprarica del Capo was among the fiefs that made up the patrimony of the Gallone, Princes of Tricase. Its earliest feudal history remains partly to be reconstructed; the eighteenth-century phase, however, is precisely documented, thanks to a notarial act preserved in the State Archives of Lecce.
The history of the fief.
On 7 August 1753, at Caprarica del Capo, the actuary of the Regia Curia of Lecce drew up the act of entry into possession ("immissio in possessionem") of the casale and its fief in the name of Giuseppe Domenico Gallone (1706–1766), 5th Prince of Tricase, represented on site by his procurator Domenico Trevisoli.
The act followed the customary ritual of feudal taking of possession, which established its real, actual and corporal character: the procurator walked through the public square, entered and left the mother church, opened the prison doors and there administered justice, in the presence of the syndic, the elected official and the chancellor of the università, the baronial governor and the summoned witnesses. The possession covered the fief with civil, criminal and mixed jurisdiction, the mero et mixto imperio, the office of the actuary and jurisdiction over the prisons — that is, full lordship over the casale and its appurtenances.
The document is of particular importance because it attests to the continuity of Gallone possession over Caprarica del Capo. Giuseppe Domenico Gallone held it as lord from 1753, succeeding his predecessor who already held it from 1733: two successive takings of possession within the same house, confirming a lordship never interrupted during the eighteenth century. The 1753 act thus refutes the hypothesis of a loss of the fief, documenting instead the full and peaceful possession of the casale by the Prince of Tricase.
[Section to be completed when further documents become available from the State Archives of Lecce: reconstruction of the earlier feudal history of Caprarica del Capo and transfers of ownership.]
Possession of the fief.
On the map.
Sources.
- 1 The notarial act of 7 August 1753 is preserved in authenticated copy at the State Archives of Lecce (Reproduction prohibited).
- 2 Identity and chronology of the 5th Prince of Tricase confirmed by the family's genealogical documentation.